Right... It's all about payback isn't it? I win, you lose. I'm on top and you're fucked.
Turn off the frickin' TV.
well, in all fairness vince, i agree with you about the poisonous/payback nature of politics these days, most obviously between the far left and far right.
But you cannot simply appeal for one side to stop when they are out of power. I do not agree with the policies of the far right, anymore then i do of the far left, but democrats and republicans both have the responsibility of representing their constituents...hopefully with simple reason, which is all out the window since it is about reason, politics, and now a whole lot of venom.
the democrats absolutely had the right and the important job to oppose Bush during the 6 years of total control by the republicans and now the situation is reversed.
the difference now, is that the poison is directed at those in charge now who were the ones directing the poison at those formerly in charge.
It is always the case most especially in the House but to a lesser degree the Senate, that when one side regains power they invariably take retribution against the other for perceived or real wrongs they suffered during their time out of power . It is ugly but it occurs on both sides, mainly from the extreme wings.
as for Obama and the poison directed at him, it really is not fair to take issue with the far right over it, unless you are prepared to take issue with the venom directed at Bush by the far left.
Frankly, as bad a President as Bush was, some of the venom and viciousness i have seen directed at him was just mind bogglingly evil. Clinton suffered the same prior to that.
Before that Bush 1 was not treated nearly as viciously and neither was Reagan or Carter. Yes, there was dissent and disagreement to very serious degree, but the poisoned chalice of negative politics by the far right and far left that has occurred over the previous 16 years will not abate.
I saw Ben Affleck on Bill Maher (in passing, as i hate that show just about as much as Rush Limbaugh, though it does have much funnier and better writers)
and he was saying passionately "enough with the ugliness"...i just found it strange that he was only saying that once Obama had won and is president but not while Bush was in office.
if you are on either extreme, right or left, you cannot spew the poison then wonder why it comes back at you, and call it off after 8 years of utter viciousness.
It would be nice if that poison did not exist, but it does and now it is Obama's turn to suffer the vengeance of the Far right (rightly or wrongly) for what they perceived to be the poison that the Far left threw at Bush and before that the Far Left saw the Far right throw at Clinton.
The ironic thing, (or maybe not that ironic) was that Bush 1 and Clinton were rather moderate figures poltically.
Clinton himself was not that polarizing politically, but his personal failings, drove the Far Right ballistic. To be frank, i do not care what Clinton did or who he screwed, but how naive do you have to be in that situation, to not know what would happen if you behaved like that in these modern salacious times? They hated him anyway, and he handed them a blowtorch to use and then gave them a a drum of gasoline.
Either way, the extreme polarity and venom really began with the far right and far left, in the early 90s...Gingrich, Lott and Limbaugh vs. Hillary Clinton and Carville their ilk and by extension Bill, when he was the least extreme of all of them.
predictably, once a far right candidate won after that era (W.) it was open season on him, compounded by many of his poor policies.
Now we have another extreme, the polar opposite from the far right Bush, we have the far left Obama.
and the knives are out from the Far right.
this is the state of being on one extreme or the other, and it wont stop, sadly.
the polarity has become so ugly and divisive, it is impossible for the far left and far right to agree on just about anything. They spend all their time insulting each other, defending indefensible positions and ignoring everyone else.
that is the nature of things now and it is not changing since neither the far right or far left is going to give up their ideology one iota.
unfortunately.
IMO